Fifty years ago this week, on Aug. 6, 1965, as President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, he declared, “This act flows from a clear and simple wrong. Its only purpose is to right that wrong. Millions of Americans are denied the right to vote because of their color. This law will ensure them the right to vote.”

WASHINGTON — Like a student who waited until the night before a deadline, lawmakers resuming work today will try to cram two years of leftover business into two weeks, while also seeking to avoid a government shutdown.

Their to-do list includes keeping the government running into the new year, renewing expired tax breaks for individuals and businesses and approving a defense policy measure that has passed for more than 50 years in a row.

Early discounting, more online shopping and a mixed economy meant fewer people shopped over Thanksgiving weekend, the National Retail Federation said Sunday.

Overall, 133.7 million people shopped in stores and online over the four-day weekend, down 5.2 percent from last year, according to a survey of 4,631 people conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics for the trade group.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — State and local officials believe the 50th anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery march, which celebrates an event that ushered in a new day for civil rights, could well usher in a new day for Alabama tourism.

Lee Sentell, director of the Alabama Department of Tourism and Travel, sees a perfect storm approaching that will rain torrents of publicity on the March 2015 event — publicity he believes may permanently elevate Alabama’s civil rights tourism.

CONCORD, N.H. — It turns out there isn’t a huge market for a $250,000-plus, 100-acre property that may be booby-trapped.

The sale of the compound owned by a now-jailed pair of tax evaders who held off police during a nine-month armed standoff is beset by problems both procedural and perilous: High bidders would have only seven days to come up with the financing for the property they have to buy largely sight-unseen because it could be filled with hidden explosives.

NEW YORK — Nestled next to the late Lewins, Blums and Levys in a spooky old cemetery in New York City lies the final resting place of America’s most legendary magician, interred under a granite monument that bears his stage name in bold letters: Houdini.

It is an impressive tribute to the man who grew up as Ehrich Weiss and died on Halloween of 1926 of complications from appendicitis. Over the years, the site has been venerated, vandalized, thieved and forsaken, but a group of magicians now wants to officially end the mystery of who will care for the grave.

SEATTLE — The grand jury that declined to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson was focused on whether he might have acted in self-defense when he shot and killed unarmed, 18-year-old Michael Brown.

But the case raises another question: Could Wilson have avoided getting into a spot where he had to make that split-second, life-or-death decision?

Departments around the country have in recent years stepped up their training in “de-escalation” — the art of defusing a tense situation with a word or a gesture instead of being confrontational or reaching for a weapon.

FERGUSON, Mo. — Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson did not receive a severance package when he resigned over the weekend, the St. Louis suburb’s mayor said Sunday.

Wilson, 28, won’t receive any further pay or benefits, and he and the city have cut their ties, Mayor James Knowles told reporters a day after Wilson tendered his resignation, which was effective immediately.

ST. LOUIS — The officer who fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown resigned Saturday from the police department in Ferguson, Missouri, where protests continued but were far more muted than the violence sparked by a grand jury’s decision not to indict the officer earlier in the week.

WASHINGTON — Several members of the Congressional Black Caucus are urging the Obama administration to withhold federal recognition of a Virginia Indian tribe because of its history of banning intermarriage with blacks.